Liftoff! Actually, I’ve forgotten how many tankers we’ve launched already, but it always looks and feels like the first. Not as spectacular as an Earth launch, since the gravity is low. But you hear and feel it through your feet, the dust flies, and the huge thing hovers up and ignites its main engines. This was science-fiction when our parents were kids.
Another 36 tons will be added to the large capacity tanks of the storage depot at the Gateway Station. Gateway maintains a small orbit around the low gravity of Earth-Moon-LaGrange Point Two or EML 2. If you draw a big figure-eight around the Earth and the Moon, the two ovals intersect at EML 1. EML 1 is the point directly between the Earth and the Moon where gravity is cancelled, and a good telescope can spot a spacecraft there.
EML 2, on the other hand, is the point directly behind the Moon where gravity is cancelled. Gateway is out of sight of the Earth and maintains contact through a constellation of satellites. Many different countries conduct missions to other planets, the sun and the asteroid belt. Many of those missions receive a final systems check at Gateway and final refueling. Our contract developed to service an increase in Mars planning.